©2024 Gail Pursell Elliott
With a new election year, comes a deluge of television advertising, passionate candidates, and impassioned supporters. Unfortunately in recent years, people who work at polling centers, many who volunteer their time, have been subjected to Bullying and Mobbing. The perpetrators are campaign workers or voters who support a candidate to the extent that they will harass people coming to the polling site or accuse the workers of dishonest behavior.
Living in Iowa has brought a lot of this disrespectful behavior into closer view for me recently. The extremes of opinion get verbalized in many venues both political and non-political, in social situations and in work situations alike. With the Caucuses over here, many breathe a sigh of relief that some of the deluge has dissipated for now. But the labeling regarding political affiliation continues to occur among citizens, whether true or not.
This pre-election cycle is where Mobbing behaviors are rampant. Rumors fly. False accusations or innuendoes are circulated. There are people who will pick up and repeat these as truth. There are others who will try to verify what has been stated before forming opinions, but often the irrational and or outrageous is more newsworthy or exciting to share. The candidates often don’t help themselves, just as other targets of Mobbing don’t.
One of the characteristics of Mobbing is the use of hearsay rather than fact or using it in a joking fashion that may have a kernel of truth to it surrounded by unsubstantiated supposition. The supposition gets carried along and becomes part of an opinion that is used to discredit. The goal of course is to force the person out or into submission.
Another characteristic of Mobbing is factionalism, which also is apparent and shows itself in both subtle and extreme behaviors by the different factions. In a company workplace, extreme behaviors may be addressed by HR, while subtle behaviors may go unnoticed or disregarded as not being disruptive. In the political climate the extremes are engineered to be noticed.
I get together with a diverse group of friends every month or so. We have drinks, snacks, and conversation. The hostess has a big sign where we gather that says NO POLITICS. We all follow that rule, and we have a good time. If someone brings up a political comment, the others smile and point to the sign, and it stops.
I also have friends on Face Book whose politics are very different than mine. These are friends I have known personally or with whom I have worked. When these friends post something with which I disagree I scroll past it as this has nothing to do with our friendship in other areas. Other posters I know of have lost friends and acquaintances due to extreme political views.
Dignity, respect, and civility are necessary to keep personal opinions just that, personal, without using them to create vendettas or generally paint individuals with a wide brush. Judgements about the rest of a person’s life based on their opinions about one issue are preposterous but happen daily. It can be difficult to view each person as a human being, past the first impression, past the stereotype, but it is necessary to maintain civility in these times. Not doing so breeds anger and sometimes violence built on nothing more than an opinion that festered without any insight. This we’ve seen erupt many times in our recent history.
The point is that Mobbing and Bullying exist in a wide range of workplaces in our culture. Whether paid or volunteer, whether political or not. While varying opinions can be honored or at least tolerated, Bullying and Mobbing cannot.
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Gail Pursell Elliott, is known as the Dignity and Respect Lady and has been writing and presenting about Mobbing and Bullying since 1998. She is an expert in the field and has appeared on television, radio, and talk shows. She is the author of several books and has been writing the Bully at Work column for Workplace Violence Today since its inception.
To contact Gail, visit her website at https://innovations-training.com.
She would welcome the opportunity to Consult with your organization, or to Speak at your event.
Mobbing and Bullying 